ALX Oncology Realigns Executive Leadership Team
06 September 2023 - 10:00PM
ALX Oncology Holdings Inc., (“ALX Oncology” or “the Company”)
(Nasdaq: ALXO), an immuno-oncology company developing therapies
that block the CD47 immune checkpoint pathway, today announced that
Jason Lettmann, a member of the Board of Directors, will succeed
Jaume Pons, Ph.D. as Chief Executive Officer, effective September
6, 2023. Dr. Pons will transition to the role of Chief Scientific
Officer and remain President and both executives will remain
members of the Board of Directors.
“The realignment of our leadership team is a
natural next step in the evolution the Company as our lead platform
asset, evorpacept, advances to the later stages of clinical
development with numerous datapoints across multiple indications in
combination with anti-cancer antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates,
and PD-1/PDL-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors expected over the next
12 to 18 months,” commented Corey Goodman, Ph.D., Executive
Chairman of ALX Oncology. “As such, in collaboration with the Board
and management team, Dr. Jaume Pons, our founder and the scientific
inventor of evorpacept, will transition to the role of Chief
Scientific Officer to focus on scientifically supporting evorpacept
and pipeline extension programs and Jason Lettmann, a longstanding
Board member with exceptional experience in the biotechnology
industry, will assume the role of Chief Executive Officer.”
Jason Lettmann has been involved with ALX
Oncology for nearly a decade since its founding, having co-led the
Company’s first institutional financing and serving as a member of
the Company’s Board of Directors since 2015. Jason brings to the
Chief Executive Officer post a broad suite of expertise relevant to
ALX Oncology at its current stage of development including serving
as Chief Executive Officer of Promedior, Inc., a biotechnology
company developing targeted medicines to treat fibrosis. During his
tenure, Promedior was acquired by Roche in 2020 for up to $1.39
billion. He also has extensive experience as an institutional
healthcare investor at Lightstone Ventures from its inception in
2012 to July 2023 having served as a General Partner, and a General
Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, a venture capital and private
equity firm, since June 2009, and as Vice President at Split Rock
Partners, a venture capital firm, from June 2006 to June 2009. Mr.
Lettmann has been a member of the Board of Directors of several
public and privately held companies and involved in numerous
successful exits including Ra Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage
pharmaceutical company acquired by UCB. Mr. Lettmann holds a B.A.
from the University of Iowa and an M.B.A. from the University of
Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
“I’m thrilled by the opportunity to work
alongside Jaume and the entire team as we enter this new period of
corporate and clinical development anchored by evorpacept’s
ASPEN-06 program in HER2-positive gastric cancer which remains on
track to report Phase 2 data in Q4’23,” commented Jason Lettmann,
Chief Executive Officer of ALX Oncology. “As we advance evorpacept
into late clinical development, we are excited to realize the full
potential of this therapeutic target for patients.
“Since ALX’s founding in 2015, it’s been an
incredible journey and a privilege developing therapies for
patients and I’m grateful that evorpacept’s clinical pipeline
maturity in combination with anti-cancer antibodies, antibody-drug
conjugates (or ADCs) and immune checkpoint inhibitors has reached
the point where I can dedicate more time to the scientific aspects
of evorpacept and its current and future combinations while
creating a pipeline of new compounds that could be combined with
evorpacept as well as be developed on their own,” commented Dr.
Jaume Pons, Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of ALX
Oncology. “I believe we have found the ideal successor in Jason who
has a robust understanding of our clinical programs and unrelenting
conviction in the potential of our anti-CD47 targeted therapy. I
look forward to continuing our corporate mission together.”
About ALX Oncology
ALX Oncology is a publicly traded,
clinical-stage immuno-oncology company focused on helping patients
fight cancer by developing therapies that block the CD47 immune
checkpoint inhibitor and bridge the innate and adaptive immune
system. ALX Oncology’s lead product candidate, evorpacept, is a
next generation CD47 blocking therapeutic that combines a
high-affinity CD47 binding domain with an inactivated, proprietary
Fc domain. Evorpacept has demonstrated promising clinical responses
across a range of hematologic and solid malignancies in combination
with a number of leading anti-cancer antibodies. ALX Oncology is
currently focusing on combining evorpacept with anti-cancer
antibodies, ADCs, and PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Evorpacept’s Rational Design and Dual
Development Pillars
Rationally engineered with an inactive Fc
effector function, evorpacept’s clinical data to date has
demonstrated a substantially improved safety profile over other
anti-CD47 molecules in the clinic with an active Fc (i.e., binding
the Fc gamma receptor on macrophages). This superior safety profile
allows higher dosing with minimal overlapping toxicity in the
combination treatment setting. CD47 expressed on cancer cells binds
to its receptor SIRP alpha, which is predominantly expressed on two
cell types: macrophages and dendritic cells. ALX Oncology is
focusing evorpacept development with the standard-of-care agents as
originally designed revolving around these two cell types,
including:
Anti-cancer antibodies (the
“don’t eat me” signal): evorpacept
enables Fc-mediated antibody-dependent phagocytosis by macrophages
in combination with anti-cancer antibodies (e.g., Herceptin®) with
an active Fc domain, which is otherwise impaired by CD47 expression
on cancer cells binding to SIRP alpha on macrophages. This same
mechanism of action applies to ADCs.
PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors
(the “don’t activate T-cells” signal):
evorpacept enables T-cell activation by dendritic cells that are
constitutively inhibited by CD47 expression on cancer cells binding
to SIRP alpha on dendritic cells. Activated dendritic cells present
neoantigens to T-cells that once activated will kill cancer cells
when the PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitory interaction is blocked by T-cell
checkpoint inhibitors.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking
statements that involve substantial risks and uncertainties.
Forward-looking statements include statements regarding future
results of operations and financial position, business strategy,
product candidates, planned preclinical studies and clinical
trials, results of clinical trials, research and development costs,
regulatory approvals, timing and likelihood of success, plans and
objects of management for future operations, as well as statements
regarding industry trends. Such forward-looking statements are
based on ALX Oncology’s beliefs and assumptions and on information
currently available to it on the date of this press release.
Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause ALX Oncology’s
actual results, performance or achievements to be materially
different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements. These and other risks are described more fully in ALX
Oncology’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
(“SEC”), including ALX Oncology’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K,
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents ALX Oncology
files with the SEC from time to time. Except to the extent required
by law, ALX Oncology undertakes no obligation to update such
statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist
after the date on which they were made.
Investor Contact:
Peter Garcia
Chief Financial Officer, ALX Oncology
(650) 466-7125 Ext. 113
peter@alxoncology.com
Malini Chatterjee, Ph.D.
Blueprint Life Science Group
mchatterjee@bplifescience.com
Media Contact:
Karen Sharma
MacDougall
(781) 235-3060
alx@macbiocom.com
ALX Oncology (NASDAQ:ALXO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
ALX Oncology (NASDAQ:ALXO)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024